Data Notes for 2022 Update:

• Changes to student loan servicers resulted in a significant underreporting of student loans in Q1 2022 and, to a lesser extent, Q2 2022. Users should interpret student loan and total debt figures from these quarters with caution and avoid comparisons with other quarters.
• The availability of forbearance programs for borrowers with many types of debt, most notably mortgage and student loan debt, expanded substantially in Q2 2020. Generally, accounts that were current before being enrolled in a COVID-19-related forbearance program continued to be reported as current to credit bureaus. For already delinquent accounts, reporting practices varied. More information can be found here.

Data Source

The Consumer Credit Explorer utilizes data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel (henceforth, CCP), an anonymized, nationally representative 1-in-20 sample of all individuals in the United States with a Social Security number and credit file. The CCP is a longitudinal panel that provides a quarterly snapshot of consumer credit use. Estimates included in this tool were produced by staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, with support from staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Inclusion in the CCP sample is limited to individuals who Equifax knows to have at least one of the following: a public record (e.g., a judgment) within the past seven years, a bankruptcy filing within the past 10 years, an open credit account, or a closed account that is still being reported to Equifax by the lender.

For more information on the CCP data set, see Donghoon Lee and Wilbert van der Klaauw, “An Introduction to the FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel,” Staff Report 479, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2010.

Contact

Please address any questions or comments about the Consumer Credit Explorer to Eileen Divringi (Eileen.Divringi@phil.frb.org). Because of data vendor restrictions, we are not able to provide any series from the tool in spreadsheet format.

Data Notes

All dollar figures are reported in Q2 2022 dollars, adjusted using the Bureau of Economic Analysis Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption Expenditures.

Consumers

Refers to the full sample of individuals with a Social Security number and credit file included in the CCP. Please note that the existence of a credit file does not necessarily imply active consumer credit use. Further, roughly 8 percent of U.S. households do not have a member with a credit report and are, therefore, not included as consumers in the CCP data set (see Lee and van der Klaauw, 2010). This share — and, accordingly, CCP coverage — may vary regionally and even within the same region by certain household characteristics, such as income.

Borrowers

Refers to consumers with outstanding debt in at least one trade line.

United States

Refers to consumers living in any of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Does not include residents of Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

Refers to counties clustered around an urban core or cores that have strong economic interrelationships. The Consumer Credit Explorer uses the 2015 MSA definitions as outlined by the Office of Management and Budget. See OMB Bulletin No. 15-01 for details.

Non-metropolitan statistical area (Non-MSA)

Refers to counties within a given state that are not part of an MSA. Includes counties that are part of micropolitan statistical areas.

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhood

Refers to consumers residing in census tracts in which the median family income (MFI) is less than 80 percent of the MFI in the associated MSA or non-MSA counties in the state. For MSAs that are subdivided into metropolitan divisions, tract MFI was compared with the MFI of its associated metropolitan division. These income categories are produced using the FFIEC’s 2020 Census Flat File, which primarily draws from the 2011–2015 American Community Survey. For additional detail on income calculations, see the associated FFIEC documentation.

Middle- and upper-income (MUI)

Refers to consumers residing in census tracts in which the MFI is greater than or equal to 80 percent of the MFI in the associated MSA or non-MSA counties in the state. For MSAs that are subdivided into metropolitan divisions, tract MFI was compared with the MFI of its associated metropolitan division. These income categories are produced using the FFIEC’s 2020 Census Flat File, which primarily draws from the 2011–2015 American Community Survey.

Nonprime

Refers to consumers with an Equifax Risk Score (i.e., an Equifax-calculated credit score) less than 660. The Equifax Risk Score ranges from 280 to 850, with a lower score indicating a higher risk of future delinquency. Does not include consumers who are unscored.

Prime

Refers to consumers with an Equifax Risk Score greater than or equal to 660.

Age groups

Borrower age is calculated based on the birth year included in an individual’s credit file. Consumers younger than 18 years or older than 84 years are excluded from these estimates. Each year, some portion of consumers in the two youngest groups age into an older category and some members of the older group age out of these estimates.

Definitions

Total debt

Total debt in all accounts in the CCP, including auto debt, mortgage debt, credit card debt, home equity line of credit (HELOC) debt, student loan debt, retail financing (i.e., credit cards for use at specific retailers), general consumer finance, and debt classified as “other.”

Auto debt

Debt from auto loans from monoline automobile finance companies as well as lenders that provide a wider range of consumer financial products, such as a bank or credit union.

Credit card debt

Debt from general-purpose credit cards; excludes both debit cards and credit cards for use at specific retailers.

Home equity line of credit (HELOC) debt

Debt from revolving home equity.

Mortgage debt

Debt from first- and junior-lien mortgages and home equity installment loans.

Student loan debt

Debt from student loans originated by the federal government and private lenders.

Collections

Consumer debt collections not handled by the original creditor and adverse public records, such as tax liens and debt judgments.

Calculations

Percent of consumers with debt

Calculated as the number of consumers¹ with total debt greater than $0 divided by the total number of consumers included in the CCP.

Percent of borrowers with debt (for each credit type)

Calculated as the number of borrowers² with debt greater than $0 for a given credit type divided by the total number of borrowers.

Percent of consumers with a credit utilization rate of 75 percent or more

Calculated as the share of borrowers with debt greater than $0 for a given revolving credit type (e.g., HELOC or credit card), for which outstanding debt is equal to or greater than 75 percent of their total credit limit for that type of credit.

Average debt

Calculated as the average of balances for borrowers with outstanding debt (debt greater than $0) for a given credit type.

Percent of borrowers with severely delinquent debt

Calculated as the number of borrowers with at least one severely delinquent account for a given credit type divided by the number of borrowers with debt of that type.

Severe delinquency is defined as having at least one account 90+ days past due (DPD), in collections, or classified as severely derogatory. For student loans, this includes loans that are 30+ DPD, although many lenders do not begin to report past-due student loans until payments are 90+ DPD. However, this measure may underestimate effective delinquency rates for student loans since roughly half of these loans are in deferment, grace periods, or forbearance.³

Delinquency rates provided in this analysis may differ from estimates from other sources in at least two ways. First, these rates reflect the percent of individuals with a delinquent account rather than the percent of outstanding debt (or loans) past due. Second, the delinquency rates presented here include individuals with accounts that lenders have likely closed and charged off the balance because they no longer expect repayment. Many lenders will report a charged-off account in the period in which it occurs but not thereafter. In the CCP, serious derogatory accounts (including ones charged off) can be reported for up to seven years. To the extent that lenders continue to report these accounts, they will be reflected in these charts.

Percent of consumers with collections

Calculated as the number of consumers with at least one third-party collection recorded on their credit report as a percent of all consumers in the sample. A resolved collection may continue to appear on a consumer’s credit report for up to seven years.

Percent of consumers with limited credit history or poor/fair credit

Calculated as the number of consumers with either no Equifax Risk Score or with an Equifax Risk Score less than 660 as a percent of all consumers in the sample. Sums the share of consumers with near-prime credit, subprime credit, and limited credit history.

Percent of consumers with near-prime credit

Calculated as the number of consumers with an Equifax Risk Score 600–659 as a percent of all consumers in the sample.

Percent of consumers with subprime credit

Calculated as the number of consumers with an Equifax Risk Score less than 600 as a percent of all consumers in the sample.

Percent of consumers with limited credit history

Calculated as the number of consumers with no Equifax Risk Score⁴ as a percent of all consumers in the sample. Adjustments to the data vendor’s process for matching individuals to accounts begun in Q3 2013 result in a discontinuity in this series. Users should interpret with caution.

• ¹ Consumers refers to the full sample of individuals with a Social Security number and credit file included in the CCP.
• ² Borrowers refers to consumers with total debt greater than $0.
• ³ For details, see Meta Brown, Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, et al. “Grading Student Loans,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics Blog, March 2012, available at http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2012/03/grading-student-loans.html
• ⁴ This occurs when the information in a consumer’s credit file is insufficient to generate a score. These are sometimes referred to as “thin files” or “unscored” records. For more information, see “Data Point: Credit Invisibles,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Research, May 2015, available at http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201505_cfpb_data-point-credit-invisibles.pdf